Houthis Take Perim Island: Bab el-Mandeb Is Now in Iran's Orbit
A day after Mocha fell, Houthi forces seized Perim Island in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and took Dhubab, the government’s last Red Sea port — then declared Saudi vessels banned from the waterway. Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, its main Hormuz bypass, shut after drone strikes launched from Iraq; the IEA said Saudi supply fell to a three-decade low of six million barrels a day in August. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Mr Trump twice asking for military help; Washington offered intelligence, not strikes.
The map has done something no war-gamer priced: Iran’s axis now sits astride both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb simultaneously, with artillery range over a strait too narrow for the protected-corridor workaround that keeps Oman-side Hormuz traffic alive — and Iranian media’s boast of “veto power” over the waterway is, for once, roughly accurate. The pipeline strike from Iraqi territory completes the encirclement logic: every Saudi export route — Gulf, Red Sea, overland — has now been touched in a single week. Washington’s refusal of direct strikes, twice, against its oldest Gulf partner’s direct appeal is the week’s most consequential no. Watch the Hanish islands next — and whether “intelligence support” hardens into targeting.